Smart Thinking: Princeton To Install Largest PV Field on Any Campus

Princeton: Ivy league school, a proud tradition, and now a super green and clean energy leader. The New Jersey-based school has plans, according to the Daily Princetonian, to buid the largest PV installation on any college campus by 2012 which will partially power the campus for the next 50 years.The photovoltaic collector field will feature a 5.3-megawatt system, and will include 16,500 PV panels. The university says that once installed, the field will generate 5.5 percent of the campus' electrical power and bring down its energy costs by about 8 percent. Not too shabby.

The 5.5 percent figure is an average stretched over the year. On super sunny days, the installation is capable of meeting up to 20 percent of the campus' power needs.

The financing for the PVs is interesting, too. Princeton will take advantage of New Jersey's Solar Renewable Energy Certificate program. For every 1000 of kilowatt hours produced, the state will give Princeton one SREC, until 2020. The university can then turn around and sell the credit to the local utility, partially covering its costs.

Other funding streams for the project come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Obama's stimulus bill, passed soon after he took office.

To view other American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments, visit here.

Princeton: Ivy league school, a proud tradition, and now a super green and clean energy leader. The New Jersey-based school has plans, according to the Daily Princetonian, to buid the largest PV installation on any college campus by